... was born in Vermont in 1804, and in 1821 he was apprenticed to a blacksmith there. In 1836 he settled in Grand Detour, Illinois, where he noticed that cast–iron ploughs didn't work very well in the tough prairie soil. He sold the first steel plough, with a steel share in a wrought–iron frame, in 1838, and by 1841 he was manufacturing between 75 and 100 per year.
© Haydn Thompson 2021